One could be forgiven for believing such ignorance had passed. Back then, it was everywhere.“That’s a myth,” Rep. Jerry Nadler protested on July 26, 2020.A social media influencer was trying to inform Nadler that Portland, Oregon, was under attack by Antifa militants. Nadler dismissed him. Meanwhile, ideologically motivated violence raged across the US for the summer of 2020, during the George Floyd riots. “Antifa is an idea, not an organization,” Joe Biden parroted during a debate against Trump in September 2020. He cited commentary from then FBI director Chris Wray..OLDCORN: Truth and Reconciliation Day: A national farce masquerading as mourning.Following Biden’s election that November, Antifa took to the streets yet again. Windows were smashed, flags were burned, and buildings were badly damaged.The uncritical assertion that Antifa isn’t an organization, or that they’re simply an idea, is perpetuated in the US to this day, but also in Canada. Here, it’s occasionally pushed by established journalists, such as long-time Globe contributor Doug Saunders.“As experts and scholars have repeatedly concluded,” Saunders wrote last week, “no such organization exists beyond the level of loose circles of local protesters, or has existed in any substantial way since 1933. There is no funding, foreign or domestic, to be found, because there is no organization by that name.”.A coincidence then that Saunders, who wrote the book Maximum Canada: Toward a Country of 100 Million, arguing for tripling Canada’s population, doesn’t seem overly critical of Antifa, a violent organization that supports mass migration.A question to ask Sanders, not withstanding the organization Rose City Antifa, who claim to be founded in 2007, is: Was it an unorganized group of unfunded protesters that torched 15 police cars in Portland last spring?While Antifa is no myth, many of the assertions made about them clearly are. .EDITORIAL: Alberta teachers turn down a dream deal — and hold families over a barrel.Fortunately for us, we have courageous independent journalists in both Canada and the US who are willing to step directly into the lion’s den to help discern what is true and what is false. Without question, the key investigator in the US is journalist Andy Ngo. In Canada, there is Alexandra Lavoie of Rebel News, who documents Antifa in Montreal and abroad. There is also Caryma Sa’d, a lawyer in the GTA who conducts her own investigative journalism and who graciously discussed her experiences with me. Combining the firsthand accounts of Ngo and Sa’d, we can expose the following popular myths about Antifa..Myth 1: Antifa is not an organizationAs we’ve seen, this is a very popular myth. It may even help protect against having Antifa prosecuted in the US. Yet in Canada, according to lawyer Caryma Sa’d, the Criminal Code recognizes that criminal organizations don’t necessarily have to have a hierarchical structure.Myth 2: Antifa are anti-fascistThis is the most frequently repeated myth. However, Antifa’s chief target, according to their anarchist ideology, dating back to Mikhail Bakunin (1814-1876), is the government, not fascists. Antifa’s goal is to overturn the government in a violent revolution. Antifa is therefore anarchist, not anti-fascist. They call everything they don’t like fascist and pretend they’re the good guys for fighting it.Myth 3: Antifa are equivalent to the Allied soldiers of WWIIAntifa and their supporters push propaganda through memes, both online and at protests. In some of these images, pictures of Allied soldiers and leaders from World War II are plastered with captions like, “I was Antifa!” Someone even created a fake Dwight Eisenhower Antifa membership card and tried to spread it online. These falsehoods are to promote the fiction that Antifa are heroes.While it’s true the soldiers of WWII fought against Nazi fascism, that’s not what Antifa fights against. Antifa fights against the government above all, but also against civil society, the rule of law, the police, capitalism, individualism, Christianity, and many other things that the Allied soldiers died to maintain..Myth 4: Antifa are harmlessThis myth is often connected to claims that Antifa are not an organization and therefore can’t possibly be a serious threat. Yet no one will forget the vicious beating of journalist Andy Ngo in Portland in 2019. Andy suffered a brain bleed and lasting trauma. In Canada, similar malicious intent, in my opinion, is recorded towards Caryma Sa’d and her camera operator, who have been attacked multiple times by Antifa members. When online, Antifa members frequently post pictures of Sa’d with inflammatory captioning, using doxxing-adjacent tactics with the goal of inciting violence against her..EDITORIAL: NFL gives Trump the foam finger with Bad Bunny Super Bowl halftime pick.Caryma confesses that those attacks and threats have had a lasting effect on her, “I’ve seen it. I’ve experienced it. It’s cumulative,” she told me. Regarding violence she’s witnessed at protests, Caryma shared that, “the ones committing the assaults are not the same as those driving the campaign.” She went on to explain that a disproportionate amount of Antifa’s violence is committed by vulnerable persons, such as those who are disabled, mentally ill, or homeless. Ngo fully concurs. .In his book, Unmasked: Inside Antifa’s Radical Plan to Destroy Democracy, Andy Ngo explains that allowing for vulnerable populations on the periphery of Antifa to conduct the most violent acts protects ideologues central to their organization.“Those who are involved in the street violence are disproportionately individuals dealing with housing insecurity, financial instability, and mental health issues like gender dysphoria,” Ngo writes in Unmasked. “Antifa could not give a damn if those people end up injured, imprisoned, or dead in the furtherance of their political agenda.”.EDITORIAL: Christianity is under siege while Liberals look away.We’ve heard from the extensive list of Antifa’s gun-related violence and assaults read out by White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt on September 22 that there’s an undeniable problem with Antifa violence that’s on the rise. We have the choice now to push back against those in the media who simply want to pretend it’s not there. And it’s an important choice, because allowing Antifa to continue to operate unnoticed will only permit more acts of terror. .Due to a high level of spam content being posted in our comment section below, all comments undergo manual approval by a staff member during regular business hours (Monday - Friday). Your patience is appreciated.
